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becoming operational in January. Michelin and adidas will also become valued customers in 2014.
Gov. Nikki Haley and Jim Newsome, S.C. Ports Authority CEO, made a quick trip to Greer for a walk-through of the Inland Port facilities.
Jim Fair
Gov. Nikki Haley and Jim Newsome, S.C. Ports Authority CEO, were accompanied by Michael Hoffman, Terminal Manager for the S.C. Inland Port, and Carlos Gittens, right, Supervising Engineer with Parsons Brinckerhof.
Jim Fair
Gov. Nikki Haley and port officials are dwarfed by the enormity of the 45-acre facility, cranes and equipment.
Jim Fair
A container arrived during Gov. Nikki Haley's visit to the S.C. Inland Port in Greer. Trucks enter John Dobson Road and travel into the port for the containers to be stacked.
Newsome echoed Danner’s overview describing the port’s attractive business assets.
“We’re actively recruiting other companies. It’s really exposing the fact we have an inland port in Greer. The port is a global business. The people in Shanghai, people in Singapore and people in Germany need to understand what we have here and what it means and what is involved,” Newsome said.
“It’s a modern and innovative solution taking advantage of short haul rail.”
Eastman Chemical (Kingsport, Tenn.), John Deere (Greeneville, Tenn.), a refrigerated cargo company, and cotton and poultry manufacturers have expressed their interest in using the port.
All that falls in line with Bruce Yandle’s remarks saying Greer is “at the intersection of prosperity and opportunity and that is between a couple of interstates. The Upstate is a logistics economy.” Yandle is former Executive Director of the Federal Trade Commission and Professor of Economics Emeritus at Clemson University. He was the keynote speaker at the Customer Forum.
He said trucking has been a constant 70 percent moving goods through the upstate and train is 13 percent. “Now is the opportunity to get more rail shipments and strengthen the global connection,” Yandle said. “I love seeing the trains. The longer they are coming is imports and the longer they are going means exports.”
Newsome said he remains committed to the port handling 20,000 – 25,000 containers in the first full year of operation. “In five years time we should be handling 100,000 containers a year,” Newsome said.
“We are continuing to tell the entire world that South Caroline is the ‘it’ state,” Haley said.
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